Mir’s record-breaking Aragon

Leopard Racing rider took his eighth win of the year

Joan Mir (Leopard Racing) broke records on Sunday at Aragon, becoming the first rider since the Moto3™ World Championship was introduced in 2012 to win eight or more races in a season. The Majorcan, who took his ninth win overall in the class after also winning in Austria as a rookie last year, is now equal with title rival Romano Fenati (Marinelli Rivacold Snipers) and the late Luis Salom as the most prolific winner in Moto3™ - with nine wins each.

Despite taking the win, it wasn’t all to be celebrated as Mir was given a six-place grid penalty for the next race, held in Motegi, for what Race Direction deemed to be over the limit riding on the back straight on the final lap, as Mir moved around to break the slipstream.

Joan Mir, P1: “It was really difficult to manage, like all of the races in a group. I’m really happy because here at home it’s always really special to win, and what can I say? Thank you to all of the people who came, thank you for the wishes and everything. The last lap was incredible; trying to manage the race as best as I could, trying to manage it a lot and push as much as I could. We took the eighth victory of the season, it’s amazing, and in Japan we have the first chance to take the championship. We will see as it’s not my goal, but we will try to continue like this. I put myself at the front because with two laps remaining Diggia did the same and I thought this is really difficult to manage because you don’t know what the rider will do, and I said that I will get to the front and do this too.”

After the race weekend, it was back on track at Aragon – a venue where Mir did the double in the FIM CEV Repsol Moto3™ Junior World Championship – for some testing in the final in-season test of the year.

JM36: ““I was testing for myself for 2018 and we found some interesting things. The day has finished and now we have to find the balance between the good and bad things, and put them together to have some great races in Asia. During the season, the front has been really good mainly in the races that I’ve won! But the rear grip is something that we have to improve, and I think today we’ve made a good step – so I am happy about today.”